"Maybe some people just aren't meant to be in our lives forever.

Maybe some people are just passing through.

It's like some people just come through our lives to bring us something:

a gift, a blessing, a lesson we need to learn, and that's why they're here...

you'll have that gift forever.

Chapter Eleven

Letting Go

"Oh, Raoul, what have you done," she whispered. The handsome man frowned.

"Christine, what has happened to you?" he asked softly. She was not the same little Lotte from the opera and from his childhood. She had changed somehow.

"Nothing has happened to me, Raoul! Why can you not leave well enough alone?" she asked.

"Leave well enough alone? Christine, I pledged my love for you that night on the roof top. You asked me if I loved you and I told you how much I did! Then you leave with another man! What do you want me to think!" he asked. Christine turned her head away, suddenly feeling very guilty. He was right. She really did owe him explanation, she knew he cared deeply for her and it was only right.

"Raoul...you are right. There are many things I need to discuss with you," she whispered. Raoul leaned back in his chair.

"Good, because I have all the time in the world," he replied. Christine stared out the window for several long moments, trying to collect her thoughts.

"Erik..."

"Who?" Raoul interrupted.

"The phantom," she confirmed.

"So it has a name?" he asked, surprised. Christine's eyes flashed.

"Yes, he has a name, Raoul!" Christine said angrily. The young man shook his head and asked her to continue.

"Erik...I understand him," she began softly.

"As do I. He is a murderer with the face of a devil. That is not hard to understand, Christine," Raoul said.

"If you continue to interrupt me then I no longer wish to have this conversation with you," she snapped. Raoul sighed.

"Forgive me, please continue," he apologized. Christine looked down at her clasped hands, smiling at the ring upon her finger.

"We both know what it is to lose someone, we both know what it is like to be alone. We are one in the same really," she whispered, a smile playing across her face as she thought of her masked man. Her feelings towards him were changing rapidly.

"When I kissed him in his home that night of Don Juan...I cannot explain it, Raoul, but I knew I could never leave him. He needs me," she whispered, looking up at him, "Can you understand that?"

"You...love him," Raoul whispered hoarsely, the realization barely coming to him. Christine looked away from the man she had only so recently loved with all her heart.

"I-"

"Do not deny it, Christine, it will get neither of us anywhere," he said sadly. Christine leaned over in the carriage seat and took his stiff hands. He almost flinched.

"Raoul...I care for you, truly I do. I cannot bear to think that you will be forever angry towards me for my choice," she whispered. Raoul looked at her for a long time. Her eyes were round and innocent as she looked at him, pleading with him to understand.

How could he understand? She was choosing a man who had murdered countless people and who hid beneath his mask a face his own mother never could love. How could his young, innocent Christine even be strong enough to love such a man?

"Please, Raoul...he is where I belong," she whispered.

"He has killed countless people, my love," he whispered.

"I cannot change his past, Raoul, but I can try and make his future brighter," Christine whispered. Raoul finally realized what it was that had changed about his Lotte. She had grown up.

In making her choice to stay with the Phantom she had become a woman more then capable of taking care of herself and doing what she thought was best. And she believed that this mask man needed her. Who was he to doubt it? One thing he was certain of was the fact that this masked man would never harm Christine. He knew he would hurt others without a single shred of remorse, but something in that man forbid him to even think of hurting her, Raoul knew that, and it did little to help calm his nerves.

"Raoul, I have to go back to him, no matter if you wish it or not," she said with a note of finality in her voice. Raoul looked away from her for a time.

"I love you, Christine," he whispered. Christine felt several tears catch on her lashes.

"Raoul...there is no way in heaven I will ever be able to forget you, I want us to still be friends, we can do that, can't we?" she asked hopefully. Raoul hesitated. Could he be her friend when he would always remember the love they could have shared?

"Yes, Christine, I would very much luke us to be friends," he said softly. Christine smiled and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Thank you for understanding, Raoul," she whispered in his ear. He nodded, fighting back the emotion he felt. He had lost his Little Lotte, but in all reality she had never been his.

A/N: If you have not noticed I have not made Raoul a bad guy in here, I decided to give him a break, and he is only acting on his love for Christine, I hope you do not all hate him that much! Please Review!